The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin (TV Series 1976–1979) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin 30min BBC Television comedy detailing the fortunes of Reginald Iolanthe Perrin. Disillusioned after a long career at Sunshine Desserts, Perrin goes through a mid-life crisis and fakes his own ... See full summary » Stars: Reggie asks C.J. for a start-up loan to establish his shop Grot. C.J. thinks it's hush money to keep quiet about his hitting on Elizabeth and lends it to him. Grot sells highly unusual and often ... 9.1 Elizabeth has gone to stay with her sick mother so Reggie uses the opportunity for some afternoon delight with his glamorous secretary Joan, who proves herself to be up for it. Sadly,just as they are...

8.9 Reggie is about to open his fiftieth Grot shop whilst Sunshine Desserts has gone bust and is now a thing of the past. Generously Reggie decides to employ C.J. but makes him wait an extra week for his... 8.8 a list of 46 titles created 12 Jan 2013 a list of 21 titles created 05 Dec 2013 a list of 392 titles created 11 Mar 2014 a list of 26 titles created 13 Sep 2014 a list of 45 titles created 05 Jul 2015 Title: The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin (1976–1979) 8/10 Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Popular sitcom set in a seedy bedsit lorded over by the mean, vain, boastful, cowardly landlord Rigsby. In each episode, his conceits are debunked by his long suffering tenants.

Stars: Leonard Rossiter, Don Warrington, Frances de la Tour Terry and Bob from The Likely Lads (1964) continue their life after Terry arrives home from serving in the Army to discover that Bob is about to marry his girlfriend Thelma. Can Thelma lead... See full summary » Stars: James Bolam, Rodney Bewes, Brigit Forsyth A working-class Cockney bigot with a biased and expirienced opinion of everything shares them bluntly and almost carelessly. Stars: Warren Mitchell, Anthony Booth, Una Stubbs The adventures of two "likely lads" ostensibly set in the North East of England (but filmed in Willesden Junction, London). Terry and Bob have been friends since childhood. Bob is the ... See full summary » Stars: James Bolam, Rodney Bewes, Don McKillop Alf and Elsie are getting old, Rita's left home, Elsie's confined to a wheelchair. Alf must now do battle with the Social Security system. Stars: Warren Mitchell, Carmel McSharry, Arthur English Albert Steptoe and his son Harold are junk dealers, complete with horse and cart to tour the neighbourhood. They also live amicably together at the junk yard.

But Harold, who likes the ... See full summary » Director: Cliff Owen Terry is divorced from his German wife and has a Finnish girlfriend Christina. At Thelma's suggestion they join her and Bob on a caravan holiday but due to a mishap the men get separated ... See full summary » Director: Michael Tuchner A satire show using puppets that are charicatures of major public figures. Stars: Steve Nallon, Kate Robbins, Chris Barrie Bless This House centres on life in Birch Avenue, Putney, where travelling stationery salesman Sid Abbott (Sidney James) and his wife Jean (Diana Coupland) live with their teenagers: Mike (... See full summary » Stars: Sidney James, Diana Coupland, Sally Geeson Classic 1960s British comedy series about a middle aged man and his elderly father who run an unsuccessful 'rag and bone' business (collecting and selling junk). Harold (the son) wants to ... See full summary » Stars: Wilfrid Brambell, Harry H. Corbett, Frank Thornton This prison comedy is based on the popular British television series of the same name. Long time Slade prison inmate Fletcher is ordered by Grouty to arrange a football match between the ...

See full summary » Director: Dick Clement Ria, a happily married suburban housewife, reaches the age where she feels as if life is passing her by. Being taken for granted by her butterfly collecting dentist husband doesn't help. So... See full summary » Stars: Wendy Craig, Geoffrey Palmer, Bruce Montague Edit Storyline BBC Television comedy detailing the fortunes of Reginald Iolanthe Perrin. Disillusioned after a long career at Sunshine Desserts, Perrin goes through a mid-life crisis and fakes his own death. Returning in disguise after various attempts at finding a 'new life', he gets his old job back and finds nothing has changed. He is eventually found out, and in the second series has success with a chain of shops selling useless junk. That becomes so successful that he feels he has created a monster and decides to destroy it. In the third and final series he has a dream of forming a commune which his long suffering colleagues help bring to reality. Unfortunately that also fails and he finds himself back in a job not unlike the one he originally had at Sunshine Desserts.

Written by D.Giddings <darren.giddings@newcastle.ac.uk> 8 September 1976 (UK) See more » Also Known As: Caída y auge de Reginald Perrin See more » Filming Locations: Did You Know? Trivia The streets in Reggie Perrin's neighborhood, the signs for which he is regularly seen walking by to and from work ("Wordsworth Drive," "Tennyson Avenue" and "Coleridge Close") are named after the famous British 19th century poets, William Wordsworth, Alfred Lord Tennyson and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. In the last episode of the series, when Reginald Perrin has taken another executive job in a large corporation, like the one he had at the beginning of the series, the street signs when he walks to work now read Liebnitz Drive, Bertrand Russell Rise and Schopenhauer Grove. These streets are named after the philosophers Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Bertrand Arthur William Russell and Arthur Schopenhauer. See more » Quotes – See all my reviews I didn't get where I am today without knowing a good show when I see it!

What average Joe suffering through the daily grind does not have a bit of Reggie Perrin hidden inside, boiling and bubbling just under the surface? Reginald Perrin is perhaps the most thoughtful character ever seen in a comedy series. He is a deep and complex man. Supporting characters each have an unforgettable "trademark" (for lack of a better term)... Sometimes direct, sometimes symbolic -- the creator of Reggie Perrin effortlessly distills the essence of real life oddities. Brilliant and funny. On the whole, this is the only British comedy I put ahead of MONTY PYTHON and FAWLTY TOWERS. Reginald Perrin is worthy of such a supreme compliment. A sitcom Masterpiece. All else is just Grot. Comedy-City, Arizona! Super! Great! 31 of 32 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin - Show News, Reviews, Recaps and Photos - TV.com The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin Follow EDIT When Reginald Iolanthe Perrin set out for work on the Thursday morning, he had no intention of calling his mother in-law a hippopotamus.

Yet that's exactly what he did do - and when the book (which opened with that very line) was adapted for TV by the BBC in 1976, Reggie's visions of that waddling, mud-caked hippo created one of TV's funniest images. On that level alone, the show is great comic entertainment - but there's so much more to enjoy besides. The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin is a situation comedy with a difference. The situation is that of a tired, middle-aged executive who, feeling suffocated by his repetitive commuter lifestyle, decides he wants out; the comedy comes from his attempts to actually do so. But this isn't just a series of half-baked plots - it's a continuing serial which follows every trial and tribulation of our anti-hero as he slowly descends into madness, then makes the one bid for freedom which might just save his sanity. And it's this satirical element that elevates Perrin from mere half-hour laugh-fest to poignant comedy drama; just as Reggie tries to prove there is more to life, the programme proves there is more to comedy than an endless stream of gags.

We travel every step of the way with Reggie, feeling his frustration; celebrating when he breaks free; and empathising when he finally discovers that the grass isn't always greener on the other side. The late, great Leonard Rossiter stars as Reggie, a role a million miles away from his most famous character - Rising Damp's lecherous landlord Rigsby - but every bit as memorable. The rest of the characters are somewhat more caricatured, from domineering boss, sexy secretary and stammering, sycophantic colleague, through to understanding wife, hippie son-in-law and scrounging brother-in-law. Yet this is not a criticism - they're played as caricatures because that's precisely what they are, with their catchphrases and repetitive behaviour only serving to heighten Reggie's sense of suffocation. The show ran for three series, in which Reggie tried various ways of putting two fingers up to the world. There was also a spin-off, Fairly Secret Army, starring Geoffrey Palmer, and a dire American version with Soap star Richard Mulligan in the title role.

But perhaps most poignant was the fourth series, The Legacy of Reginald Perrin, which aired in Britain in 1996 and reunited all the original cast with one notable exception: Reggie himself. Sadly, Leonard Rossiter died in 1984, and another actor taking over the character was unthinkable, so here his family, friends and colleagues gathered to carry out the conditions of his last will and testament. The book was a joy as, despite Reggie's absence, his spirit lived on through the others; sadly in the TV adaptation, his absence was all-too apparent - without a fully formed central character, all the others were reduced to simple caricature. Nevertheless, The Fall and Rise ... stands proudly alongside other classic BBC comedies such as Fawlty Towers, Only Fools and Horses, Dad's Army and Steptoe and Son.

================================ CREW: Directed by Gareth Gwenlan John Howard Davies (pilot episode) Writing credits David Nobbs Original Music by Ronnie Hazlehurst Film Editing by Bill Harris Chris Lovett Dan Rae Graham Walker Production Design by Lesley Bremness Barbara Gosnold Graham Oakley Jon Pusey Costume Design by Christian Dyall June Hudson (pilot) Joyce Mortlock Janet Tharby Makeup Department Dawn Alcock .... makeup artist (series 1) Fran Needham .... makeup artist (series 3) Christine Whitney .... makeup artist (series 2) Sound Department Rodney Bond .... sound recordist (series 3) Jeff Booth .... studio sound Richard Chamberlain .... sound (pilot episode) Basil Harris .... sound recordist (series 1) Laurie Taylor .... studio sound Bill Wild .... sound recordist (series 2) Other crew Brian Clemett .... studio lighting John Dixon .... studio lighting John B. Hobbs .... production assistant Brian Jones .... production assistant Ron Koplick .... studio lighting Reg Pope .... camera operator James Purdie ....

lighting technician (pilot episode) (as Jimmy Purdie) =============================== Production Companies * British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) ============================= Awards for BAFTA Awards 1980 -- Nominated -- Best Situation Comedy -- Gareth Gwenlan 1979 -- Nominated -- Best Light Entertainment Performance -- Leonard Rossiter (Also for "The Losers" (1978) and "Rising Damp" (1974)) 1979 -- Nominated -- Best Situation Comedy -- Gareth Gwenlan 1978 -- Nominated -- Best Light Entertainment Performance -- Leonard Rossiter [Also for "Rising Damp" (1974)] 1978 -- Nominated -- Best Situation Comedy -- Gareth Gwenlan 1977 -- Nominated -- Best Light Entertainment Performance -- Leonard Rossiter 1977 -- Nominated -- Best Situation Comedy -- Gareth Gwenlan =========================== Trivia * Real-life Labour MP (Member of Parliament) John Stonehouse faked his own apparent suicide in exactly the same way as Reginald Perrin - in the summer of 1974 he left his clothes on a beach in Miami and disappeared.

However this was pure coincidence: David Nobbs wrote his novel early in 1974, before Stonehouse disappeared (so Nobbs couldn't have based the novel on Stonehouse's disappearance) but the novel wasn't published until 1975, after Stonehouse went missing (so Stonehouse couldn't have got ideas for his disappearance by reading the novel). * Creator David Nobbs originally wanted Ronnie Barker to play Reginald Perrin, having written a lot of material for "The Two Ronnies" (1971). =============================== Followed by "The Legacy of Reginald Perrin" (1996) Remade as "Reggie" (1983) =========================== Release dates UK -- 8 September 1976 ========================== Filming Locations 1. High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England, UK 2. Sandalls Close, London, England, UK 3. West Bay, Dorset, England, UK 4. Witney, Oxfordshire, England, UK ============================= Based on the novels. Original Literary Source Nobbs, David. The Better World of Reginald Perrin.

Mandarin, December 1990, 0749304685 Nobbs, David. The Complete Reginald Perrin. Methuen, October 1990, 0413638804 Nobbs, David. The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin. Mandarin, June 1990, 0749303794 Nobbs, David. The Return of Reginald Perrin. Mandarin, December 1990, 0749304693 =========================moreless "The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin" (1976) Creator David Nobbs originally wanted Ronnie Barker to play Reginald Perrin, having written a lot of material for "The Two Ronnies" (1971). See more » Quotes: [a board meeting is taking place at Grot Headquarters] Tom Patterson :I have distributed among you a few campaign ideas - I'm not really a campaign person - and slogans. I won't bore you with my slogan ideas now.

Reginald Perrin :No, no, Tom, I insist that you bore us with them now. Tom Patterson :Oh. Well, there was one - I'm not really a slogan person - it went: "Go to Grot shops and get an eyeful, of Perrin's Products with a wide range of goods that are really pretty awful". Reginald Perrin :Excellent, Tom! Perfect! Tom Patterson :It doesn't rhyme or scan properly. Reginald Perrin :It almost rhymes and scans properly, that's the important thing. This is exactly what I'm paying you for. [...] Author: tzer0 from The World Of Tomorrow There's nothing like Reginald Perrin. The only things that approach it are Ronnie Barker's stammering speeches in Open All Hours, or his cockney patter in Porridge, and John Cleese's tantrums in Fawlty Towers. Leonard Rossiter's gift for rattling off a screed like a machine gun is amazing. If Reg Parrin ever did walk into the sea he'd never drown because he never has to stop to take a breath! Every episode is remarkably simialar. Elizabeth sends him off to work, to which he is invariably late.

He fantasizes about his secretary Joan until he's called on the carpet by his boss CJ, who didn't get where he is by . . etc . . . who gives Reg the completely mad assignment of the day. And then he goes home for the day, where his dinner, which is invariably rizotto, is interrupted by his nutty military brother-in-law's cockup on the catering front, or his pipe smoking son-in-law's latest attempts at nettle wine. And then he thinks about his weekend visit to his mother-in-law whom he pictures as a hippo. I know! It sounds about as boring as anyone's routine. What isn't boring is watching him slowly go into meltdown, and start spouting off like a volcano erupting. It just get's better and better as Reggie's life gets worse and worse. Reg really does try to make his way through the day. But if you or I had days like his we'd probably turn our hand to eccentric occupations too. But hang on, because with every new twist in his otherwise monotonous road there will be another fall and rise in this roller-coaster ride of a comedy. Was the above review useful to you?

Amazon.com: The Fall & Rise of Reginald Perrin: The Complete Series: Leonard Rossiter, Pauline Yates, John Barron, Sue Nicholls, John Horsley, Trevor Adams, Roland MacLeod, Bruce Bould, Jacki Piper, Terence Conoley, Norman Mitchell, Ray Marioni, Gareth Gwenlan, John Howard Davies: Movies & TV Next Special Offers and Product Promotions Get a $75.00 statement credit after first Amazon.com purchase made with new Discover itÂ® card within 3 months. Terms and conditions apply. See offer for details. Apply now. Editorial Reviews Opening with a naked Reggie running into the sea, this groundbreaking BBC comedy series tells the story of a man desperate to escape his daily monotony. Adapted by David Nobbs from his darkly-comedic novel, and powered by the unique performance of Leonard Rossiter, this brilliant satire had the world “cracking up” over one man’s nervous breakdown. Reginald Perrin (Rossiter) has a respectable career at Sunshine Desserts, a happy marriage and two less than satisfactory children. But the pressures of the rat race are beginning to push Reggie over the edge.

The mere mention of his mother-in-law conjures the image of a hippopotamus, the word ‘earwig’ keeps creeping into his conversations, and his thoughts are repeatedly interrupted by outrageous fantasies involving his secretary – what’s an overstressed food firm executive to do? INCLUDES ALL 3 SEASONS (21 EPISODES) PLUS: “The Very Best of Leonard Rossiter” – the ultimate film review of the acclaimed actor including unforgettable highlights, archival interviews with Rossiter and first-hand reflections from four of his Reginald Perrin co-stars. “Reginald Perrin Christmas Special Sketch” – the long-lost sketch, which reunited the cast three years after the completion of the series; originally broadcast as part of BBC’s 1982 “The Funny Side of Christmas” special. Special Features Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, The 1 9 7 6 - 1 9 7 9 (UK) 21 x 30 minute episodes 1 x 5 minute Christmas special This innovative BBC sitcom had as its central character a man falling headlong into the calamity of mid-life-crisis.

The series was also an inspired swipe at middle-class England and big business. The Fall And Rise of Reginald Perrin was quite unlike most other sitcoms: it employed a serial storyline and featured adult themes of disillusionment and loss, and a central character who was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. It was also fantastically funny. David Nobbs adapted his 1975 comic novel The Death of Reginald Perrin as the first series of this quintessentially British sitcom (it was retitled The Fall And Rise of Reginald Perrin for paperback) and, originally, the author wanted Ronnie Barker to play the part of Perrin, a middle-aged sales executive combating a mid-life crises with flights of fantasy. Instead, he was blessed with Leonard Rossiter, who delivered an outstanding performance in the role. Reginald Iolanthe Perrin had worked in the same boring job with Sunshine Desserts for 20 years. Every day he left his boring Norbitan home, took the same boring train journey, arrived at his boring office, and was greeted by his boring secretary Joan who he dreamed of having an affair with.

The business is run by C J, a powerful figure full of impressive-sounding aphorisms that, on analysis, prove meaningless, comprising a heap of mixed metaphors and clichés piled one on top of another. C J (pictured at left) has a quality of elusiveness that makes dealing with him frustrating, for it is impossible to decipher what he actually thinks about any given subject. Most of his statements begin with the all-purpose introduction "'I didn't get where I am today by . . . " followed by a baffling example of what he did or didn't do to arrive at his present status. He also has a penchant for whoopee cushions, so that meetings begin with a definite air of farce. Perrin's colleagues, Tony Webster and David Harris-Jones, are equally superficial and lacking in original thoughts, meeting any suggestion with a simple one-word platitude, "Great!" (Tony) or "Super!" (David), so that the only difference between them is chemical: Tony bluffs that he is one of life's great kidders, amazingly confident and about to go places, whereas David is an intensely nervous individual, with zero confidence and a perpetually sweaty deportment.

The dithering company doctor is no use either: he knows nothing about medicine and lives in hope that a sick female employee might be 'feeling chesty' so that he can have an opportunity to examine the problem area. Reggie Perrin's secretary Joan is a middle-aged bundle of simmering sexuality who is fatally attracted to Reggie and liable at any moment to pounce on him. At home, Reggie's wife Elizabeth is pleasant and understanding, but it's her very tolerance and unchanging reliability that grates on Reggie and adds to his malaise. Then there is Reggie's exceedingly boring son-in-law Tom, who makes appalling home-made wine, and his wildly off-centre brother-in-law Jimmy, whose military background seems to have cast him adrift in civilian life where he appears hopelessly out of his depth, using militaristic forms of speech to explain his predicament ("No food. Bit of a cock-up on the catering front").

From episode one, Perrin's life is brain-numbingly predictable and repetitive - the train ride into London is always 11 minutes late, whatever the excuse - but there are already signs that he is going off the rails with his lapses into surreal reverse logic and a bizarre habit of visualising a hippopotamus whenever thinking of his mother-in-law. In short, Perrin, at the age of 46, is questioning the meaning of life, and going through a real and quite terrifying mid-life crisis. Gradually his brain parts company with normality and madness becomes the order of the day. In a last-ditch attempt to preserve his sanity and escape the rat-race, he fakes his own suicide by leaving a pile of clothes on a beach and walking off into the sunset. This plot was echoed in real life when prominent British politician John Stonehouse faked his own death in identical circumstances. Wondering what it would be like to attend his own funeral, Reggie then wears a fake beard, calls himself Martin Wellbourne and falls in love anew with Elizabeth, who recognises his true identity but, for a while, pretends otherwise.

Nobbs once again wrote a novel, The Return Of Reginald Perrin (published in 1977), which he then adapted for a second TV series. In this Reggie soon jettisons his Martin Wellbourne persona, reveals that he's not dead and reacquaints himself with his relatives and old work colleagues. After a brief spell working at a piggery for a Mr Pelham, and warding off the advances of a dowdy spinster Miss Erith, Perrin sports a new devil-may-care attitude and launches a shop, Grot, dedicated to selling useless things, and even he is amazed when it becomes a massive global success. Reggie remarries Elizabeth, who has become a Grot business executive, and when Sunshine Desserts collapses he relocates his former colleagues at the Grot HQ. But still Reggie is numbed by routine and eerily finds himself taking on the traits and mannerisms of CJ. The second series ends with Perrin, his wife and CJ all faking their suicides. The third and final book, The Better World Of Reginald Perrin (1978, once again written in tandem with the TV scripts), formed the basis of the somewhat inferior final series.

Here Reggie has his most ambitious project to date: he gathers the usual crew and launches Perrins, a self-contained commune for the middle-aged and middle-class, where its members can learn to live in harmony and then set out to spread the gospel. The dialogue was still sharp, but the Perrin idea seemed to have run its course and there was a distinct lack of energy about this third series. In following the first two, however, which contained some of the sharpest and funniest comedy ever aired on TV, it did have a hard act to follow. A poor US adaptation, called simply Reggie was made by ABC in 1983, and a variation on the Jimmy character appeared in the C4 series Fairly Secret Army a year later. Inexplicably, the BBC made the series The Legacy of Reginald Perrin in 1996, continuing the story after Reggie had been killed by an advertising hoarding (Leonard Rossiter himself had passed away in 1984), leaving his former colleagues to perform absurd tasks in order to inherit several million pounds from his will.

The group unites to form BROSCOR (the Bloodless Revolution of Senior Citizens) but their march on London is not deemed wacky enough to win the prize. Stripped of its central all-important character the show was doomed to certain failure. Reginald Perrin/Martin Wellbourne The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin - what time is it on TV? Episode 3 Series 2 cast list and preview. The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin Series 2-Episode 3 not currently available Add this to your watchlist to find out when it is available via broadcast or catch-up. Watchlist ADVERTISEMENT Summary When Reggie loses his job at the pig farm, he and Elizabeth decide to find something they can work at together, so they consult with Jimmy. Classic 1970s comedy, starring Leonard Rossiter, Pauline Yates and Geoffrey Palmer. Cast & Crew The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin [BBC Comedy] (Complete) / AvaxHome The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin [BBC Comedy] (Complete) Wow! What a picture!

The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin [BBC Comedy] (Complete) TVRip | XviD | 512x384, 25 fps | MP3 128 kbps, 44 khz | English | 3.44 GB | 21 episodes (~160MB per episode) The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin is a novel and a British sitcom starring Leonard Rossiter in the title role. Both book and TV series were written by David Nobbs, and the screenplay for the first series was adapted by Nobbs from the novel, though subplots in the novel were considered too dark or risqué for television and toned down or omitted, an example being the relationship between Perrin's daughter and his brother-in-law. The original three series, all of the same name, were broadcast between 1976 and 1979; a fourth, The Legacy of Reginald Perrin, also written by Nobbs, followed in 1996. Wikipedia When Reginald Iolanthe Perrin set out for work on the Thursday morning, he had no intention of calling his mother in-law a hippopotamus.

Yet that's exactly what he did do - and when the book (which opened with that very line) was adapted for TV by the BBC in 1976, Reggie's visions of that waddling, mud-caked hippo created one of TV's funniest images. On that level alone, the show is great comic entertainment - but there's so much more to enjoy besides. The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin is a situation comedy with a difference. The situation is that of a tired, middle-aged executive who, feeling suffocated by his repetitive commuter lifestyle, decides he wants out; the comedy comes from his attempts to actually do so. But this isn't just a series of half-baked plots - it's a continuing serial which follows every trial and tribulation of our anti-hero as he slowly descends into madness, then makes the one bid for freedom which might just save his sanity. And it's this satirical element that elevates Perrin from mere half-hour laugh-fest to poignant comedy drama; just as Reggie tries to prove there is more to life, the programme proves there is more to comedy than an endless stream of gags.

We travel every step of the way with Reggie, feeling his frustration; celebrating when he breaks free; and empathising when he finally discovers that the grass isn't always greener on the other side. The late, great Leonard Rossiter stars as Reggie, a role a million miles away from his most famous character - Rising Damp's lecherous landlord Rigsby - but every bit as memorable. The rest of the characters are somewhat more caricatured, from domineering boss, sexy secretary and stammering, sycophantic colleague, through to understanding wife, hippie son-in-law and scrounging brother-in-law. Yet this is not a criticism - they're played as caricatures because that's precisely what they are, with their catchphrases and repetitive behaviour only serving to heighten Reggie's sense of suffocation. The show ran for three series, in which Reggie tried various ways of putting two fingers up to the world. There was also a spin-off, Fairly Secret Army, starring Geoffrey Palmer, and a dire American version with Soap star Richard Mulligan in the title role.

But perhaps most poignant was the fourth series, The Legacy of Reginald Perrin, which aired in Britain in 1996 and reunited all the original cast with one notable exception: Reggie himself. Sadly, Leonard Rossiter died in 1984, and another actor taking over the character was unthinkable, so here his family, friends and colleagues gathered to carry out the conditions of his last will and testament. The book was a joy as, despite Reggie's absence, his spirit lived on through the others; sadly in the TV adaptation, his absence was all-too apparent - without a fully formed central character, all the others were reduced to simple caricature. Nevertheless, The Fall and Rise … stands proudly alongside other classic BBC comedies such as Fawlty Towers, Only Fools and Horses, Dad's Army and Steptoe and Son.

– TV.com Reginald Iolanthe Perrin: Leonard Rossiter Elizabeth Perrin, his wife: Pauline Yates Joan Greengross, his secretary: Sue Nicholls CJ, his boss: John Barron (CJ is fond of pompous statements beginning "I didn't get where I am today by …" – except when Reggie becomes his boss, whereupon he says "I didn't get where you are today by …"; also "Neither Mrs CJ nor I have ever…" and "We're not one of those dreadful firms that…"). Barron also played the role of CJ's brother FJ.

Tony Webster, "Great!": Trevor Adams David Harris-Jones, "Super!": Bruce Bould Mark Perrin, their son: David Warwick (Series One only) Linda Patterson, their daughter: Sally-Jane Spencer Tom Patterson, her husband: Tim Preece (first two series and Legacy) and Leslie Schofield (third series) (Catchphrase: "I'm not a … person.") Jimmy, Elizabeth's brother: Geoffrey Palmer Doc Morrissey, company doctor at Sunshine Desserts: John Horsley Seamus Finnegan, Irish Labourer with a genius for management: Derry Power (Series Two and Three only) Kenny McBlane, Scottish Chef at Perrin's: Joseph Brady (Series Three only) Prue Harris-Jones, wife of David Harris-Jones: Theresa Watson (Series Three and Legacy only) Series One (8 September - 20 October 1976) The first series was based on Nobbs's novel The Death of Reginald Perrin, retitled The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin to tie in with the TV series and retains its new title to this day. The plot hinges on Perrin's mid-life crisis as he tries to escape his dreary life.

He lives at 12 Coleridge Close, part of the "Poets Estate" in a south London suburb called Climthorpe, a development different from those around it only by having the streets named for famous poets. He commutes to Sunshine Desserts where he works as a sales executive. Each morning he is 11 then 17 then 22 minutes late (increasing with each series) yet each morning he gives a different excuse. These become increasingly bizarre ("defective junction box, New Malden" being one of the more plausible ones) reflecting the decline of both British Rail and his own mental health. He enters the office building under the "Sunshine Desserts" sign, which, as the series progresses, loses more and more letters. "Reggie", as he is known, daydreams in Walter Mitty style. Part of the narrative demonstrates what voices in his head are saying. Although he appears to love his wife, he fantasises about his secretary, Joan Greengross. As his behaviour becomes more erratic, he is unable to dictate letters without uttering words like "breast". Far from being offended, Joan welcomes the attention, adjusting her posture to show her figure.

The endless marketing campaigns for bizarre products, satirized in reports from the product research department, combine with Reggie's relations with his oppressive boss "C.J." and his yes man subordinates to drive him over the edge. Ceasing to care about the consequences, he dictates offensive and condescending replies to customers. At home things are no better. Despite his warm relationship with his wife Elizabeth he suffers from impotence. As pressures at work build, relations with his dysfunctional relatives deteriorate, especially with his incompetent brother-in-law Jimmy and son-in-law Tom, a man whose "political correctness" emphasises his pomposity. After a few reckless acts, including getting out of his car in the lion enclosure at a safari park, Reggie fakes his suicide by drowning, leaving clothes and personal effects on a beach. Before this he sends C.J. an anonymous threat containing the words "blood will flow", dumping loganberry essence into a stream while C.J. is angling. C.J. collapses and the company doctor, Doc Morrisey, pronounces him dead. C.J. opens one eye and says, "You're fired!" Assuming diguises, Reggie encounters more of the banal and pompous side of life.

Only as a buck-toothed farm labourer does he find fulfilment looking after pigs. Missing his wife, he assumes the identity of Martin Wellbourne, returned from South America, and visits her. He realizes he loves her still. Elizabeth, seeing through his disguise, is happy to have him back. – Wikipedia Series Two (21 September - 2 November 1977) In the second series, he remarries his wife and they build a business, "Grot", which sells useless items, hoping it will be an interesting failure. Instead, the items are snapped up as novelties, Grot becomes a success, and Reggie ends up employing the staff from Sunshine Desserts, including his boss, C.J. This causes the Perrins to fall into the boredom that Reggie suffered before, so they fake a joint suicide. This series was novelised as The Return of Reginald Perrin. Leonard Rossiter insisted that the quality of the first series was better since it was a book adaptation, and insisted Nobbs write books for the subsequent series before he would consider appearing in them.

– Wikipedia TV on DVD: “The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin: The Complete Series” The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, The Complete Series (2009, E1) purchase from Amazon: DVD What I love about the digital age is the opportunity for older series, obscure to most modern audiences, to be discovered and enjoyed by a new generation. One such series is The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, a BBC sitcom that aired for three seasons between 1976 and 1979. Based on a series of novels and developed into a sitcom by the books’ author, David Nobbs, the farcical, poignant, hilarious show has been released on a lovely four-DVD box set that contains all three seasons, as well as a bonus DVD that contains a Christmas Special and a loving, hourlong tribute to the series’ star, the late Leonard Rossiter. Rossiter stars as the title character, Reginald Perrin. The first season chronicles the mid life crisis/nervous breakdown of Perrin, a middle management employee at a struggling dessert food company.

Perrin loses touch with reality at crucial moments in his day, becomes disenchanted with the corporate world and his mundane existence, fakes his death, leaving behind his loving wife, Elizabeth (Pauline Yates), and adult children, then realizes that is life is empty without Elizabeth and returns to her in a new identity. The series begins slowly, unfolding like a good book, or play. It takes its time to show Reggie losing his grasp. Words lose their meaning to him, and he begins seeing images of hippopotamus whenever his mother in law comes up in conversation. By episode five, after Reggie’s failed attempt at a fling with his secretary and after a convention speech he delivers fails miserably, Reggie kisses Elizabeth goodbye, fakes his death and sets off to become someone new. But his new life is incomplete without Joan. After attending his own funeral, he introduces himself to Elizabeth, his children, and his old boss, CJ (John Barron) as Martin Wellborn. Elizabeth sees through the guise and agrees to marry this “stranger,” Martin Wellborn. If taking on this new personality is what will make her husband happy, Elizabeth is willing to go along with the ruse.

Season 2 finds Martin Wellborn employed by Reggie’s old boss, CJ (known for making statements that begin with “I didn’t make it to where I am by…”) at Sunshine Desserts. However, when Reggie finally reveals his true identity, he is promptly fired by CJ. On a whim, he decides to open a store called Grot, which sells useless products (like his son-in-law’s radish wine), hoping that Grot will be an interesting failure. The store, instead, becomes quite a success. Suddenly, Reggie is a wheeling and dealing executive and he winds up hiring most of the staff of his old company. Reggie and Elizabeth quickly get bored with their success, do their best to drive the company into the ground and plan their own deaths by the end of the second season. In the third and final season, Reggie and Elizabeth open a commune for bored, middle-aged adults. When it fails, Reggie gets hired by CJ’s brother, FJ, and when the series ends, Reggie is once again contemplating disappearing from the world and his mundane life. The writing throughout all three seasons is sharp and funny; an excellent commentary on modern society that holds up 30 years after it originally aired.

In fact, besides some of the clothing and the limited technology at the time, The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin could hold its own against any contemporary show. The dilemma of Reggie and the characters who inhabit his life are no different than most of what you see on contemporary sitcoms. If you are of a certain age and you are watching the show for the first time, you may see a little of yourself in Reggie; I know I did. Besides the intelligent, witty writing and the fine characters that surround Reggie, first and foremost you should watch The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin for the masterful acting by Leonard Rossiter. The way he prepares and digs into this character is marvelous. Furthermore, his impeccable comic timing and his intuition is not to be missed. With so many options and so many TV shows on DVD for you to choose from, perhaps checking out The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin may not be at the top of your viewing list. But if you are a fan of The Office or Scrubs I think this is a series that is worth your time. And for a couple of you readers, now you’ll have the chance to see what I mean.

I have two copies of The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin available to give away. If you’d like to be entered into a giveaway to receive a free copy, email me at malchus@popdose.com by Wednesday, June 24. I will draw two names and notify the winners by email. Good luck! Related The greatest sitcom ever made: The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin The greatest sitcom ever made: The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin 6 July 2016 • 5:00pm John Horsley and Leonard Rossiter in The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin Credit: BBC The golden age of the sitcom is supposed to have been between the mid Sixties and the late Eighties: from Steptoe and Son to Only Fools and Horses . Much of the humour rested in observations about class and in the early years, this meant finding amusement either from the lives of the urban working class (Steptoe and Till Death Us Do Part) or from aspirational northerners (The Likely Lads and The Liver Birds).

In the Seventies, writers started to explore the Home Counties’ middle classes: whether in the banalities of Terry and June, or the novelty of The Good Life . All these were plausible but the greatest sitcom of all, which started on the margins of plausibility and raced on through remarkably credible episodes of incredibility, was The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin. Read: the 10 best sitcoms of all time Over three series and 21 episodes, from late 1976 to early 1979, the story was told of Reginald Iolanthe Perrin, a distressed middle manager in a food company, played magnificently by Leonard Rossiter, who is having a midlife crisis. Reggie is 46 when the story begins, worn down by 25 years of commuting from London’s suburbia (an early episode has him marching, with umbrella and briefcase, into Norbiton station, though his comfortable semi was filmed on location in Ealing) to Sunshine Desserts. He lives in fear of his overbearing and bullying boss, CJ, played by John Barron, one of the great monsters of British comedy.

His catchphrase (“I didn’t get where I am today… ”) entered the national culture. It is a story about the rat race, but, unlike most rats, Reggie escapes – he fakes his death by leaving his clothes on a beach in Dorset and goes to work on a sewage farm. David Nobbs, the genius behind The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin Credit: ANL/REX/Shutterstock Reggie returns in disguise after a few weeks but is soon rumbled – he sets up a business selling rubbish, which makes him enormously rich. One of the many satirical points the writer, David Nobbs, makes is about the willingness in the consumer society to spend a fortune on items that are absolutely useless. But success upsets him just as failure had, and he disappears again, this time with his long-suffering wife. The progression towards bizarreness continues in the third series, in which the Perrins return and Reggie sets up a therapy community in suburbia. When that, too, becomes successful, he makes his final trip to the beach. Nobbs wrote the programmes based on his three novels about the oppressed, depressed executive. The books are brilliantly funny and more subtle than the television adaptation.

Nobbs was a highly educated, deeply thoughtful man, and I have always thought the Perrin saga was underpinned by Nobbs’s own conversion from Christianity to atheism just as he went up to Cambridge. There is no trace of the spiritual in Reggie himself. When religion appears in the series it is to be mocked, when Reggie (disguised as, supposedly, one of his friends) turns up at his own memorial service. Reggie finds the imprisonment by his routine so desperate because this is the only life he has, and, at 46, it is ebbing away from him. It is why he craves excitement, because neither his job, nor his domestic life, nor his boring circle of friends provide it. This sitcom is an exploration of the tragedy of human existence, in which a boring life is made additionally tragic because there appears to be no eternal life to follow it. Nobbs’s wild escapist plans for Reggie are, perhaps, the real oppressed middle manager’s dream – running his own business in which he can employ and humiliate the old boss who used to toy with him.

When the series was first broadcast it won numerous awards and commanded a vast audience: perhaps because there were so many people whose lives resembled Reggie’s and who, in Nobbs’s treatment of that life, gained insights into their own condition. Theirs was not a life of deprivation or underprivilege – quite the reverse. But it was a life of formality, confinement, and of a barely suppressed outrage at the sheer ordinariness and repetitiveness of it all. It is no coincidence that, in the early programmes, the climax of the action is Reggie screaming. Perrin was made in an age when the BBC did not feel the urge to use its drama and comedy programmes to proselytise about minority rights, prejudice, racism and homophobia. It took a problem common to the silent majority and explored it sensitively, but with brilliant humour. That was why Perrin was so popular in its day, and why if one watches the box set now, 40 years later, it transmits through wit something timelessly relevant. The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin is available now on DVD,

Question: In the TV series 'The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin" for which company did he originally work?
Answer: SUNSHINE DESSERTS